Ralph, I've been in this thread for only the last few pages, so you should have seen my qualifier about vibration that I'm specifically not talking about turntables. Yes, obviously vibration when cutting a record, or playing it back later, will affect the sound. I think I also mentioned that tubes can be microphonic, so there too vibration can possibly affect the audio. I'm sure you know that I'm talking about wires and solid state gear, and all the other silly "vibration"
products
believers waste their money on.
As for LP distortion, just because cutter heads are powered by large amps has nothing to do with the amount of distortion throughout the entire signal chain. Competent digital converters (ie: CD quality at 16/44) have typical distortion less than 0.01 percent at all audible frequencies right up to the point of hard clipping. I'll be glad to see your real world distortion numbers for sine waves on an LP played back at typical levels. Use the best test tone LP you can find, with the finest turntable and cartridge you can get your hands on, and have Michael Fremer align it if you'd like. :->) I imagine that best case it's at least 100 times worse than the distortion of CDs but, as always, I'm willing to change my opinion as soon as you or someone else shows actual evidence. So whatcha got?